Dr Peter Manning
Lecturer

  • Email: pete.manning@ncl.ac.uk
  • Telephone: +44 (0) 191 222 8332
  • Address: School of Agriculture, Food and Rural Development
    Newcastle University
    Newcastle upon Tyne
    NE1 7RU

Introduction

My research focuses on plant community dynamics and ecosystem level responses to global environmental change. I have particular interests in the role of plant community composition in determining ecosystem function and services (e.g. plant productivity, carbon, nitrogen and water cycling) and in investigating the mechanisms through which plant-soil feedbacks affect ecosystem processes and community structure.

Brief Biography

1998-2002 – PhD Studentship, University of Liverpool/CEH Dorset

2002 2007 – PDRA, Centre for Population Biology, Imperial College London

2007-2009 – PDRF, Centre for Population Biology, Imperial College London

2009-2012 – Lecturer in Applied Ecology, AFRD, Newcastle University

 

 

My research is currently concentrated in three closely related themes:

Grassland Ecosystem Services under Global Change

Grassland ecosystems provide a range of ecosystem services including carbon storage, forage production, biodiversity conservation and recreation. Together with collaborators from a range of institutes I am investigating how these services are affected by global change drivers such as agricultural improvement, nitrogen deposition and climate change. Detailed field studies complement large-scale observational work by exploring the mechanisms through which these changes operate, while theoretical work provides a framework within which these findings can be understood. Key study sites in this theme include the DIRECT experiment at Imperial College’s Silwood Park Campus, and Newcastle Universities’ Palace Leas Plots, at Cockle Park Farm in Northumberland. 

Plant-Soil Feedback Relationships

Plant-soil feedback has been shown to play an important role in many key ecological processes including exotic invasions, succession, biodiversity-productivity relationships and species coexistence, but many questions remain. Which of the various changes that plants make to the soil have the strongest effect upon their growth and competition? How do biological and environmental factors influence these relationships? How important are these feedbacks next to other major ecological processes? To address these questions I have performed a series of experiments, including one that assesses the importance of resource based plant-soil feedback mechanisms in succession relative to other controls such as dispersal, herbivory and the activity of belowground communities.

 Ecosystem Carbon Sequestration

Following a global assessment of ecosystem carbon storage potential  that was made in collaboration with UNEP/WCMC I am currently investigating the factors that determine ecosystem carbon sequestration in a range of ecosystems. These include grasslands, but also forest and urban systems, e.g. the Carbon Capture Gardens  project. Here, in collaboration with researchers in Newcastle University’s Civil Engineering and Geosciences department I am investigating the potential for urban soils to sequester inorganic carbon and determining the plant species that are most able provide this, and a range of other ecosystem services.

  

 

 

I teach a range of ecology modules and am the Degree Programme Director (DPD) of the MSc in Biodiversity Conservation and Ecosystem Management (formerly Wildlife Conservation and Management). 

Undergraduate Teaching:

ACE1049 - Global Challenges (Contributor)

ACE2032 - Climatic and Environmental Change (Contributor) 

ACE3081 - Ecology and Environment Research (Module Leader) 


Postgraduate Teaching:

ACE8022 - Quantitative Techniques, Experimental Design and Data Analysis (Contributor)

ACE8041 - Ecosystem Management (Module Leader)

ACE8042 - Biodiversity Conservation: Policy and Practice (Module Leader)

ACE8045 - Ecological Survey Techniques (Module Leader)

ACE8090 - Biodiversity Conservation and Ecosystem Management Research Project (Module Leader)